The Amazing Goblin's Workshop is a puzzle game with a story that takes place in a workshop with a steampunk style, filled with goblins and unique gadgets. The player is a promising young goblin engineer, and his task is operate the amazing Magnum Triator +9000, a machine with very special properties used to prepare the materials and build the clients order. Several different problems might happen and you have to be fast because the time is short. ATTENTION:Try not to brake anything! There are 8 different components that must be placed together. In order to collect them, you have to align at least 3 equal components. With the sufficient amount you can build the gadgets, deliver the orders to then finish the levels and progress with the story.

This is a list of 6 mental motivators for human brains, created with the objective of pleasuring and motivating people to take action and to work on life-related jobs. In this case, I apply it specifically in digital gaming.

This is a list of 6 mental motivators for human brains, created with the objective of pleasuring and motivating people to take action and to work on life-related jobs. In this case, I apply it specifically in digital gaming.

1) Experience Bar (Progress Measuring) – Experience bars record the progress, something that Jesse Schell really emphasized. The idea of not rewarding the player for his achievements (tests, tasks, objectives) but by always getting 1xp, for any action. This invokes a notion of always evolving.

2) Multiple Tasks (Long and short-term) – Getting 10.000 special cards is boring, getting 10 especial cards, is fun. And to get the 10 cards there is several small different tasks. Finding one, fight for other, studying to get another, and by getting them all, the objective of collecting is done. Short objectives together sums up to a long one, and it’s all worth it. The complex quest is split in important pieces, so that people can grasp it with the limited human vision and feel encouraged to win. 3) Effort Reward* (All efforts are rewarded) – Every time something is done, it is won credit, experience, money, pieces, blood, souls, mana, power... not just for completing, but also for trying. You don’t punish faults, but reward every little effort with small rewards, but instant ones.

4) Feedback to the player (Clear, quick, clean) – This is absolutely necessary. The best example is to note that people don’t relate acts to consequences and the human brain needs this to worry. Pollution, global warming, flooding, public violence are problems caused by us too, but the guilt is shared, the manifestation is small, it stays out of the human worry, the consequences are distant in space and time, it’s hard to learn a lesson from this. By direct and quick feedback they can understand, learn and change very fast.

5) The element of uncertainty (Neurologic secret, the magical reward of the brain) - An known effort delights people, but an effort with variable possibilities fascinates the brain, makes it sparkle. Dopamine is associated with an “effort-search” behavior, so if the player have to save a tree to get a card, and by saving the tree, he also saves, unexpectedly, a bird that accompanies him in his travels, this fascinates the player in a high manner.

6) Social Network (other people are exciting) - What really excites the player the most are other people, in terms of effort, not money. In the sense of people seeing, commenting, participating, working together. The Social Network organizes and carry on games by itself: it creates items, expansions, patches, websites to improve what was done by the network. In a collaborative effect, they thrill, in a “competition” sense, they also try harder and hotter to keep up trying and growing. Competition balanced with comparison are keywords here. The power you get by using this 6 characterics is huge. It’s really powerful in the good and bad sense. Whether for education, conscience or entertainment, as in for addiction, domination and control of the mental faculties influenced by centuries of evolution of the human brain to a better life, survival and interaction of our race. The use of these gimmicks can be cruel, or they can be a mind treat. Be careful and respectful when using them. I could even cite some of the bad uses of these, but I’ll refrain to talk about this because of that little thing called ‘ethics’ that I don’t like very much.

I always liked getting a reward for a task, then experience an unexpected consequence from it
I think another good point for making a game fun is to give the player the possibility to experience the game from different roles: like, this round I'm going to be a wizard, but next time I'll just go as a knight; Or: this time I'll be sneaky and undetected, next time I'll just be the next rambo.

Thanks!
Do you think it will be 6 general steps? I mean, is there any missing step for a specific genre?
Sorry, I just love experiments and so far I can't think of any, your step since to cover all games.